updated 10:50 am EDT, Tue October 6, 2009

Case involves embedded web apps

Research and development company Eolas Technologies has filed a lawsuit against over a dozen companies, including major technology businesses such as Apple, Adobe, Amazon, Google, eBay and Sun. Eolas accuses the companies of violating two US patents, 5,838,906 and 7,599,985; the broadest of these is the first, which allegedly covers all "fully-interactive" embedded web applications. The second is an extension, specifically covering embedded apps using plug-in and AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML) code.

The case is being handled through the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, which is infamous for being friendly towards plaintiffs in intellectual property cases. Eolas notes however that the first patent has been upheld in two reexaminations by the US Patent and Trademark Office; the company moreover won a 2004 federal court ruling against Microsoft, at the time valued at $565 million. Damages being sought in the new lawsuit are unspecified.

Some other companies mentioned in the lawsuit include Blockbuster, Chase, Citigroup, Go Daddy, Office Depot, Playboy and Texas Instruments.

too broad

I'm sure the courts have no choice but to uphold these broad patents, based on the previous court decisions. Eolas must have invented something, but I'm sure it wasn't every possible embedded web technology all at once. The fact that they can successfully sue should show that the patents were too broad and vague in the first place -- which is exactly the problem with software and tech patents in general -- granting patents for things that are merely concepts, instead of inventions.